Holland House

Holland House, residence of the Holland family in Kensington, London, made famous in the first 40 years of the 19th cent. by the hospitality of Henry Fox, 3d Baron Holland, and his wife. Built in 1606, the mansion was bought in 1767 by Henry Fox, grandfather of the 3d baron. Holland House was an intellectual headquarters for English liberals and other distinguished men. Reformers such as Jeremy Bentham, Samuel Romilly, and Henry Brougham, scientists such as Michael Faraday and Humphry Davy, writers such as Thomas Moore, George Byron, and Sir Walter Scott, and statesmen such as William Melbourne, George Canning, and Henry Palmerston were frequent guests at the famous dinners at Holland House.